Research and Teaching Interests: Social, cultural, and health geography; geographic thought, history, and methodology; HIVAIDS, homelessness and drug use politics; HIV/AIDS prevention and care in Southeast Asia and United States.

Statement: As an academic organization we are not immune to the challenges presented to higher education in the 21st century. These include the restructuring of university life and the re-imagining of disciplinary practices within academic institutions. As universities come under assault and disciplines are questioned as to their ‘relevance’ in this unstable political and economic climate, it is critical that the discipline of geography remain cognizant of its intellectual diversity, offering itself as an ideal space through which to offer both basic and applied research addressing the political complexities of the communities in which we do our work. This leads me to offer three core goals that I believe should be the cornerstone of AAG outreach moving forward. (1) The AAG needs to develop a wider conversation about collaborative research between graduate and undergraduate students as well as between faculty and students in disciplinary and interdisciplinary context. This should result in a concerted effort to mentor new geographers who can continue to address issues of relevance to our field. (2) The AAG should increasingly promote, with partners in the National Science Foundation and other research organizations, collaboration between AAG members and community organizations outside our member academic institutions. This would enhance the ability of the AAG, and its membership, to expand on the diversity of research that engages issues of local and global significance, such as climate change, health care accessibility, and everyday issues such as mobility, democracy, and equality. (3) The AAG should use its national and international presence to increase collaboration across predominantly undergraduate, master’s granting, and doctoral granting programs. As an organization, we should harness the incredible dedication to teaching and scholarship that takes place across a wide variety of institutions, creating new networks of talented scholars and practitioners who can draw more effectively on a wider network of support to do their work. In short, the AAG can, and should, increase the degree to which it fosters collaboration across different institutions and constituencies in the future. If elected, I hope to help showcase what we are already do so well as an organization and how we might build on our best practices to create a vibrant organization that is supportive of an expanded geography presence in our national and international member institutions moving forward.

MINELLE MAHTANI.Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Planning, and Program in Journalism, University of Toronto Scarborough (2009-present). PhD (Geography) University College London (2000), BA (Honours Anthropology) Dalhousie University (1993).

Other Professional Experience: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation national television news producer, “The National” (1993-1998), Associate Producer, “Canada: A People’s History” (1998-1999), Mellon-Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1999-2000), Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Geography and School of Journalism, UBC (2000-2002), Strategic Counsel, IMPACS (Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, 2002-2003), Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography, UBC (2002-2003), Visiting Professor, Media Studies, Lang College, New School University (2003-2004), Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Planning, and Program in Journalism, University of Toronto Scarborough (2004-2009), numerous consulting and advisory board positions with federal and provincial government including Canadian Heritage, Citizenship Immigration Canada, Canadian Military College, City TV, CBC, National Film Board, Ministry of Multiculturalism and Immigration among others.

Relevant Honours: Fellow, Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2009-present), Massey College Senior Fellow (2009-present), Distinguished Visiting Speaker, University of California – Northridge (2008),Certificate of Excellence, University of Toronto (2006), Four Teaching Citations for Excellence in Teaching, University of Toronto Scarborough (2006-2008).

Statement: Geography fascinates me because our discipline is ideally situated to inform rapidly shifting social, political and environmental debates. My expertise lies in building bridges between the academy and other centers of knowledge, like the policy, media and not-for-profit worlds. If elected, I will use my experience as a former national television news producer to enhance geography’s public profile. I will help AAG members leverage their own areas of expertise in an era of specialized knowledge economies. I will also encourage bilateral and multilateral knowledge exchange between the AAG and other organizations. As an AAG National Councillor, I will promote public awareness of the value and importance of geographic literacy. I believe in improving the quality of geography teaching and learning. My passion is in the area of diversity and equity, and I am particularly committed to fostering mentoring and leadership opportunities for geographers from marginalized backgrounds. Finally, I hope to contribute to ongoing processes of internationalization in the AAG towards transparent and sustainable intellectual reciprocity between countries.

JAMES A. TYNER. Professor of Geography, Kent State University. PhD (University of Southern California, 1995), M.A. (San Diego State University),B.A. (California State University Long Beach).

Teaching and Research Interests: Population Geography, Political Geography, Social Geography; emphases on violence, war, militarism, genocide, international migration, and globalization.

Publications: Author of ten books, including Military Legacies: A World Made by War (New York, Routledge, 2009), War, Violence, and Population: Making the Body Count (New York, Guilford, 2009), The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide, and the Unmaking of Space (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2008), and The Geography of Malcolm X: Black Radicalism and the Remaking of American Space (New York, Routledge, 2006); author of approximately 50 articles and book chapters appearing in Annals of the Association of American Geographers; Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers; Gender, Place and Culture; The Professional Geographer; Area; Antipode; American Behavioral Scientist; Asia Pacific Viewpoint; Geographical Review; Journal of Geography; Environment and Planning D; Social and Cultural Geography; Geography Research Forum; Asian Pacific Migration Journal; Asian Geographer; Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography; and Philippine Population Journal.

Statement: Over the course of my career I have been involved in several synergistic activities in which I have contributed to my home university, department, the wider discipline of Geography, and my local community. As one example, I currently serve on the steering committee for my daughter’s elementary school as it attempts to become accredited within the International Baccalaureate Program. Through my participation, I have worked to more fully incorporate the teaching of Geography within the grade school level. At Kent State University, likewise, I have worked to broaden the geographic horizon of our student body, through overseas field trips to Southeast Asia, and through my participation with university-community panels on racism and the Iraq war. As National Councilor I will continue my efforts to expand the scope of Geography, both to K-12 education and the community more broadly; I am interested in the possibility of facilitating connections between the AAG, elementary schools, and local communities, to bring students (especially) outside of the classroom to experience the implications of a globalizing world.

Professional Service: Department Chair for 10 years; Associate Dean of Faculty for the Social Sciences; Editorial Board Memberships—Population Space and Place; Professional Geographer 2005-9; Progress in Human Geography 2005-9; Annals of the Association of American Geographers 1996-2000; Growth and Change 1992-1999; International Regional Science Review 1994-1999. Expert Witness for NAACP in lawsuits brought against several towns for discriminatory hiring in municipal employment, 1999-2000 and 2008-9. Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Coordinator 2003-10—a program that aims to increase the number of minority students, and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs in the arts and sciences.

Statement: My research centers on race and employment; my interest in the AAG reflect those concerns. Given the recession and its aftermath, in tandem with a seemingly inexorable rise in contingent university employment, the AAG must continue to invest resources that Geographers turn to for information about potential employment and related opportunities. I am also committed to diversifying the discipline and making it as inclusive as possible. That means not only supporting and mentoring nonwhite and female colleagues, but also dismantling other barriers based on class, ability, and sexual identity. My support extends in particular to students enrolled in PhD programs and ensuring they find fulfilling and influential work at the end of their formal studies. I want to add that I am also interested in accessibility in another sense—specifically to our national meetings. I would like to see the AAG a) seek locations for meetings that minimize travel for all our members and b) look for ways to participate that does not even involve travel to a particular location. Running through all this is my concern that scholarship within the discipline is the finest it can be; our best work has increased odds of resonating beyond the borders of our discipline. This means ensuring that the quality of our professional meetings and publications match or exceed any allied academic fields.